Would You Buy Food From a Place Called The Bite-Sized Bakery?

Warning: These are the rantings of a Food Scientist.

Watching the Food Network and I realize I know a lot of the things they're talking about now. Just today, the Barefoot Contessa mentioned a couple things I had learned about recently.
Blanching is a cooking process where you boil the food (usually a vegetable) and then plunge it into ice cold water after. This preserves the nutrients for freezing and gives the food a great color! Also, beware of over-mixing mashed potatoes, because agitating the starches too much makes them react and makes the consistency of your potatoes paste-y.

I'm really enjoying my Food Science classes. My lab is fascinating! I'm learning science-y things but I get to make food while doing it! We've had labs about sugar and how different types of sugar affect consistency, cookie textures, hard crack times and so on. I've made fondant, taffy, peanut brittle, and caramel. All of these are either amorphous or crystalline types of candy and rely heavily on cook time and temperature.

Hard Crack

Peanut Brittle

Taffy

I've made ice cream, custard, and sherbet and understand the difference between the three. The ice cream machine was really cool as well. We had to add salt to the ice to lower the freezing point.

Chocolate Sherbet

Frozen Custard

-- Sorry, I'm a little excited so I'm going to keep listing things I've done in my lab. --

We've learned about fruit and vegetable processing. Little known fact, bananas are one of the few fruits that still ripen after they are picked. You can stop this ripening process by placing them in the fridge. The peel will go brown, but the banana will still be good. Oh! Get this! One of the labs we tried a bunch of random fruit and vegetables I've never even heard of.

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke)

Buddha's Hand

Kohlra

Star Fruit

Endive, Radicchio, Leek, Tarot, Rutabaga, Kohlrabi, Bok Choi, Parsnips, Sunchoke, Star Fruit, Kumquat, Buddha's Hand, Passion Fruit.

Parsnips

Leek

FOOD IS SO COOL. I've canned some vegetables, made some jelly from scratch and preserved it in a jar, and used starch to make cherry pie filling. Starch is so cool guys. It's in so many foods and helps with gelation. That's what happens when things form a gel.

And today, TODAY, I made tofu. That's uber cool because I've never even seen tofu. I'm sheltered. That, and I tried 20 different types of cheese. My favorite's Gouda. :)

Brie. Freaking delicious when melted on crackers.

Cambozola Black Label. Creamy. Tastes awful.

Gjetost - The lovechild of cheese and caramel flavor.

Gouda. One of my favorites.

Gruyere Cheese. Tastes like campfire.

Also, today I made some Nutella cupcakes. Just a day in the life.

Here's the recipe in case you wanted it.

Nutella Cupcakes

-this recipe will make around 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• 3/4 cup warm water

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350F/170C. Using a stand mixer, combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and mix. Turn mixer to low and add eggs, vanilla, oil, water and buttermilk. Mix until combined. Line muffin/cupcake pan with liners and fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting. 

Nutella Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 2 cups icing sugar

• 3/4 cup Nutella

• 3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Procedure:

In bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar and combine. Add vanilla, Nutella and cream one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.

(I only used one tablespoon of milk and I whipped my frosting until it was light and fluffy.) Drizzle with Nutella.

Heck yeah Cupcake Tower

 The End.

Excuse me while I take a sec to breathe.

Whoa. Man have I been busy. I thought it was bad before, now I barely have any time not filled with classes, projects, papers, study groups, or tests! My brain is going to explode!!
It's almost ironic that today is a Tuesday because Tuesdays are my busiest days as far as classes go. I've somehow found some time before I start dinner and Christopher gets home.

Okay, so a recap on the past almost month:
My Birthday.

We are so in sync.

It was epic. A lot more epic than I thought it would be since I got stuck working all day on my Golden Birthday. Well, I got off work early at like 6 so Christopher, being the wonderful husband that he is, took me to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was soo good! I got a free dessert that we were almost too full to eat! After that, we had a dance party with the gang.(And by that I mean we played Just Dance 2014 until the wee hours of the morning).


We actually celebrated my birthday the next day. I had to wake up early to take a test, then we went to see the Lego Movie before Maddy had to go to work. When we dropped her off at Iceberg for work, we got some burgers, fries, and bomb milkshakes for lunch. After that, we went to prep for my party! Ashleigh and Kolby were my bartenders and made me mixed drinks all night. I was in charge of giving everyone money when they won the games Christopher had planned. They had to use this money to buy drinks and cake if they wanted it.

The following Friday (February 28th), we went to a Mardi Gras party at UVU. There was dancing, a photobooth, pixie stix, cotton candy, spray on tattoos, snakes, hypnotism, and a magician. So we were pretty much in a sugar induced state of hyper the whole night. Here's some pictures:

The next day we drove around and stopped at the haunted locations of Provo then played Monopoly until like 4am. I lost around 11pm and went to bed. And Sunday we gave each other facials and watched the Oscars.

Hot.

 Oh, and here's a funny story. When we went to Olive Garden to use my birthday coupon our server informed us that he was two weeks new and would probably mess up. Sure enough, as soon as he brought our drinks, he took one off the tray and the other two toppled off and into my lap! A boy from a nearby table leapt to my rescue, giving me his napkin. Our server seemed to avoid us after that and our meals took forever to arrive. Poor kid, he even forgot our appetizer - we used the coupon on a dessert instead. The manager stopped by to joke that since I got an unexpected shower that he would pay for my meal. They almost gave me an Olive Garden shirt to change into as well. So really, we made out like bandits! Two meals with drinks and a dessert with our giftcard was a whopping total of like $11. Servers can spill drinks on me more often! I was only slightly soggy as we ate our dinner.

 That's pretty much it as far as adventures go. Christopher and I have started swimming with Kolby at the BYU pool. I love it. Didn't realize I was missing swimming until I got back in the water.

We're doing school and work. Always busy. I'm looking for summer internships (preferably paid), so if any of you have connections, hook me up!

And one last exciting bit of exciting news: Christopher got accepted to BYU for the Spring semester! He's super excited! And he just got promoted to the 30 hour teller positions. Go Christopher! He's Awesome.

Okay, that's it. The End.

Life Goes On.

So, Updates since my last post: I still have about 1/6 of the huge sheet cake left. Christopher and I are almost sugared out. And we weigh a little more than we would like to... Oops.

Also, I got the DVD with all my wedding photos on it!! Check out my Facebook album for those. I'll be sending out Thank You cards soon, I promise!

And, ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NICK!! ~

My handyman putting together my cupcake stand

This last week my Dad was in town for the STEM Fair at BYU. That was fun because he brought all the things I left after the wedding and any cards or gifts that people sent to my parents house before we changed the address on our registry. It was like Christmas all over again! He also took me shopping for birthday presents and took me and Christopher out to dinner the first night he was in Utah. I like when my parents visit. ;)

Poor Christopher. He knew what he was getting in to when he married me, but that still doesn't make it any easier on him that my birthday is one week after Valentine's Day. I made it perfectly clear that they must be celebrated as two separate events. He did a good job on Valentine's Day though. I got home from a long Friday of working (I was exhausted) and saw a new outfit laid out on the bed and spiced up with some accessories I already had. All of this was scattered with chocolate. Then I turn around to see him holding a HUGE box of chocolates and a bunch of roses. This guys spoils me :) Then we went to Wendy's to use some coupons that we had (hey, hey, calm down. He offered me Olive Garden first, I just wanted a fast food burger!). We then drove up to "our spot" on the mountain where he had first asked me to be his girlfriend. It was nice and quiet and secluded. The timing was perfect because we got to watch the sunset and then see the city lights. Romantic, huh?

Saturday we drove up to Farmington to spend the weekend with the Miners. My dad and Uncle Jeff were staying there to take their annual ski trip with Uncle Steve and Sean. We got to hang out and watch the Olympics and welcome my cousin Nick back from his mission. Then on Sunday, we went to church, then watched Charly. What a tear-jerker, that movie!! I barely survived without ruining my makeup. Immediately after, Jeff and Christopher and I ran downstairs to watch some mindless zombie killing (The Walking Dead). The rest of the family harassed me all the way through my show about making cupcakes so when the episode was over I got to work. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and apparently they were a hit because all three dozen cupcakes didn't last that long!! Christopher and I headed home after having an epic Nerf gun war with Josh and Zach and then jamming to some made up songs.

On our way home, we took an adventure through Ikea (I might've found my coffee table! No more cardboard replacement soon!!) since I'd never been there. That store is like an amusement park! Sheesh! Then we used the rest of our Bed, Bath, and Beyond giftcard on some essentials and finished our journey back to our apartment.

That night, we went over to Kolby's apartment since he and Ashleigh had rented a puppy from puppiesforrent.com. This has only further convinced me that my next apartment needs to allow pets and I need a Corgi pup for my mental health. It's the only reasonable conclusion. The puppy's name was Bruno and he was a border collie pup. Too cute!

I think that's about it. My birthday is in a week, so no doubt my next post will be sugar-induced and include the many adventures associated with changing my name. Soon I will officially be a Hughes!

Sick.

Today's been quite the lazy day. I slept in til noon, cleaned some dishes, watched some Olympics, showered, then went to McDonald's for dinner. We were planning on going to see the Lego movie with some free movie passes we have from Christmas, but all the showings were full. Sad day. Christopher cried a little. So all in all it's been pretty uneventful. I do, however have some key events to report on from the past two weeks.

I am still sick. Boo. I feel like I've been sick my whole married life. Probably cuz I have been. I'm so over it. Whine.

We still go out and do things though. Like this! We went to the Shops at the Riverwoods to see these ice sculptures and fire dancers and reindeer and fireworks! It was fun. And cold. And confusing since they played patriotic music during the fireworks show. In February!

We also got together with Ashleigh, Kolby, and Maddy to watch the SuperBowl last Sunday. I don't know how the rest of your SuperBowl parties went, but I know mine was full of chips and dip and CUPCAKES!!

Yeah, be jealous.

My cupcake display; it reminds me of Beauty and the Beast.

I started going crazy printing off baking recipes and putting them in a folder. I finally decided to actually bake the things that I was putting into this folder and Christopher has been totally supportive saying he'll buy whatever ingredients I need. This might be how we go poor.

I also had the opportunity to teach baking tips at the Relief Society Activity. It was really fun. The sisters were great at participating and giving additional advice. They asked me questions too but surprisingly they were all questions I knew the answers to! :)

We made nifty cake displays with DI plates and candlestick holders. There was also a cookie exchange. I'm about sugar'd out! I brought Christopher home a whole box of all the different cookies the women brought, and he still claims he likes mine the best!

Here are some of the tips I shared:

For Cookies - 

• All ingredients should be room temperature before you begin (mostly eggs and butter) but not melted because if your butter is too squishy, your cookies will spread and cakes won't rise enough. 
• If you like cookies chewy, remove them from the tray as soon as they are out of the oven and place on a cooling rack
• If you like cookies crunchy, bake them a bit longer and leave them on a rack to cool.
• 
  Practically all cookies should be slightly underbaked – take them out while they are still a little soft, they'll continue to bake as long as they are in contact with the hot sheet.
• Use shiny baking sheets – dark or burned sheets absorb heat faster and cause cookies to burn.
• Check at minimum time to avoid burning (i.e. 12-15mins)

For Cakes -

• Don't attempt to ice the cake before it is completely cool
• Heat knife first for crumble free slices, run knife under hot water then dry with towel.

For Muffins -

avoid over stirring – do not stir until it's smooth and lump free

• When using berries in a mixture, dust with flour before adding in; this helps prevent bleeding in the batter.
• Don't fill cups too full – 3/4c. is just about right → gives round tops
• Muffins (and cupcakes) are done when golden and spring back slightly when touched.
• Let pan sit on cool, wet towel – helps muffins come lose easier and prevents from sticking to bottom.

Finally, some useful kitchen substitutions:

I made this into a cute little magnet.

• cake flour: 2 cups all purpose flour minus 2T, add 2t baking powder and 2T cornstarch
• buttermilk: 1T fresh squeezed lemon juice to 1 c whole milk and let sit 5 mins
• brown sugar: 1c granulated sugar with 1T molasses
• extra light olive oil in place of butter (¾ c for every cup of butter)
• salted vs unsalted butter. If recipe calls for unsalted; use it! If only have salted, just cut back on amount of salt added to recipe. Reduce by ½ t salt for every stick salted butter used instead of unsalted.

I realize I'm getting a little long winded now, so I'll just finish up this post by talking about our wedding open house that we had here in Utah. We had a handful of people show up and bring a TON of food. 

Brigitte and Seth stopped by and played apples to apples with us and a bunch of our Utah friends. Christopher got to show the slideshow of us that he originally made for the wedding reception too! Katrina got us Monopoly and said it's supposed to help keep our marriage together... I'm still trying to convince myself to be okay with Christopher winning every single game we play. I don't know how he does it!

Larry and Kim brought this HUGE cake. :)

So I have more cake and chips and cookies than I know what to do with! I keep trying to bribe Sean and Ben and Brigitte to come over and eat all the extra cake. I gotta clear out my fridge so I can bake more things for Valentine's Day and my birthday. This month is exciting :)